The emotions have traditionally been marginalized in mainstream social theory. This book demonstrates the problems that this has caused and charts the resurgence of emotions in social theory today.

Drawing on a wide variety of sources, both classical and contemporary, Simon Williams treats the emotions as a universal feature of human life and our embodied relationship to the world. He reflects and comments upon the turn towards the body and intimacy in social theory, and explains what is important in current thinking about emotions. In his doing so, readers are provided with a critical assessment of various positions within the field, including the strengths and weaknesses of poststructuralism and postmodernism for examining the emotions in social life.

Introduction

Why Emotions, Why Now?

Modernity and Its Discontents

Reason Versus Emotion?

Biology Versus Society?

Experiencing Emotions

The Lived Body

Desire, Excess and the Transgression of Corporeal Boundaries

Gender and the Transformation of Intimacy

A 'Stalled Revolution'?

`Manufactured' Emotions?

The '(un)managed Heart' Revisited

Conclusions

`Well written, richly documented, and carefully argued, Emotion and Social Theory takes the sociological understanding of emotions to significant new levels. It will set the standard for work - theoretical and empirical -for some time to come. A must read for seasoned scholars and newcomers to the field' - Virginia Olesen, Professor Emerita of Sociology, University of California

`At millennium's end, emotions have moved to the very centre of social theory. Williams lucidly analyses the writings of philosophers, sociologists, psychologists and psychoanalysts who, though often at odds about everything else, are agreed on that at least' - Stephen Mennell, Professor of Sociology, University College Dublin

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Simon Johnson Williams

Simon Williams is a Professor in Sociology. His research to date falls into three main interrelated areas of sociology and politics pertaining to: (i) health, emotion, sleep and the body (ii) bioscience, biomedicine and biotechnology (iii) media, popular culture and everyday life. He has been particularly active in recent years in developing with colleagues sociological and interdisciplinary agendas at the sleep, health and society interface. He also has newly emerging research interests, through this recent work, in time and social change, as well as longstanding interests in social theory, psychoanalysis and the politics of affect, and... More About Author

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